Interview with Shaynna Blaze
23-August-2010
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What car do you drive? (or scooter or bike!)
Black Toyota Rav 4.
What’s your dream car?
Lexus 4WD. I love the car’s interior style and since sitting in one, no other seat feels just as good. Also, I still need a car that can be a work-horse to transport decorator items, so why no do it in style!?
What do you love?
I love Melbourne for its diversity, culture, festivals, sport and food. Lying in bed on a stormy night. Knee-high boots. Chilling in my backyard with family and friends. A great belly laugh. Curling up in a chair and losing myself in a book.
What are your top-5 interior decorating tips?
- Don’t be afraid of colour when painting – you can always paint over it.
- Wait until you can afford the better version of what you were about to buy. It will last longer.
- Always have more than one source of light. Relying on just overhead lighting makes a very boring interior.
- First look at the feel you are trying to create, rather than the look. Do you want casual, formal, themed, etc? The colours and styles will follow once you’ve made this decision.
- Don’t have your TV as the feature of the room. Yes it is how we all live but make it PART of the room, not the focus.
What are the most common interior decorating mistakes people make?
Trying to copy someone else’s look. Just because it works in their house doesn’t mean it will do the same for you. Great example is paint: “But it looked fantastic in Jane’s house”. The natural light source and shape of a room differs from every house. Test pots should be your beginning to painting any room.
What are your tips for:
Making a small room appear bigger: Keep your floor and wall tonings similar so there is not a definition of space.
Making a home more ‘homey’: Don’t be afraid to express yourself with things you like. Leave matching things to hotels and display homes.
Setting a romantic atmosphere: How can you go past flowers and candles!? Have a group of candles with staggered heights and flowers that look like they have been picked from the garden.
The nursery (babies): Lots of storage so you don’t trip over things! Dimmable lighting and blinds or curtains that extend at least 50cm either side of the window to encourage good daytime sleeping patterns.
Kids’ rooms: Make it about them and not a place to send them to when they’re naughty. Kids love themes, so let them put up those posters, have shelves to display their favourite toys and big toy chests for those quick clean-ups to get things off the floor in a hurry!
You’re having a dinner party and can invite 5 people – who would you invite and why?
Bette Midler – a brilliant entertainer, singer and I love her; my daughter – she has been overseas for a year, so anything to get her back home; Brad Pitt – to hear his views on architecture (yeah right!); Curtis Stone – I’m not a dessert maker so I might have to get him to step in towards the end of the night; Cameron Diaz – so much fun and a woman who is extremely successful without compromising who she is.
Is there anything new coming up for you?
I’m still toying with products under the blankcanvas INTERIORS brand and working on a book. I hope to travel to Milan, Frankfurt and Barcelona in 2011 to seal my inspiration.